The Pennyaire
By well-wisher
- 459 reads
There was once a poor peasant boy named Triskle who was in love with a girl named Lalinda but he had nothing to his name except five copper pennies and so he decided that he would get on a ship for the New World and make his fortune so that he could return a wealthy man and marry Lalinda.
But, no matter how he pleaded with captains of various ships in the harbour none would take him as either a sailor or a cabin boy and so he stowed away upon a ship hidden inside a barrel of biscuits.
But while his ship was at sea there was a terrible storm and the ship sank.
Only the boy because he was inside a barrel floated safely to the shore of a strange island.
But the boy was a perpetual optimist and so he searched the island and he came upon a city there.
And, as he was walking through a market place of the city, the boy saw a man selling fruit and he said to the man, "I would buy some apples from you but I only have a few copper pennies".
Hearing this the man laughed and said, "Why should that matter. Here everything costs a penny".
And, upon enquiring further, the boy realised that the man was not joking; that on that strange island everything cost one penny wether it was a hazelnut or a house; an apple or an acre of land.
And so the boy, because he had five pennies bought a new suit of clothes for one penny; a sack of diamonds with another penny; a sack of gold with his third penny; a sailing boat with his fourth penny and with his 5th penny, a lamp that its seller swore would grant wishes.
Then the boy sailed back to his homeland and his beloved Lalinda.
But when he went to see her again he realized that he had a rival for her affections; a strong, burly and very wealthy man named Gallon.
But Gallon was so jealous of Triskle that he and his gang pounced upon the boy in the forest, stole his sack of diamonds and his sack of gold and, knocking him unconcious, dumped him in a dark cave and rolled a heavy boulder infront of the cave
And when Triskle regained conciousness he was very frightened and sad at first but then he remembered the magic wishing lamp that he had bought on the island.
"I'll just use this lamp to wish myself out of here", he said, taking the lamp from his pocket.
But though he rubbed the lamp half a dozen times nothing happened; though he said "I wish" a dozen times nothing happened and even when he lit the lamp, other than it lighting up, nothing happened.
"The man who sold this lamp to me lied", he thought, angrilly.
But then, while he was using the light of the lamp to look around the dark cave the boy saw a small hand mirror and in the mirror was the smiling face of a genie who said, "Wish for anything under the stars and I shall grant it oh master".
And so the boy wished himself out of the dark cave and the genie rolled away the boulder from its entrance just by blowing upon it then he returned to see Lalinda.
When Gallon and his gang of friends saw that Triskle had escaped from the cave however, they pounced upon him again but this time Triskle used the magic mirror to turn them all into earth worms and, seeing them wriggling around in the mud, a robin flew down and ate them.
Then Triskle used his mirror to make himself a prince and asked Lalinda to be his princess and happily she accepted so then, together, they both had a very wonderful life.
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